Setting up a new bonding process and need to establish the curing schedule or your production process is set but experiencing fiber movement and need to adjust curing temperature or time, here is a FOC TIP to validate your curing schedule:
Build in buffer time – While your curing time maybe 12 minutes, you might adjust the timer to 15 minutes, giving you a 25% margin. You can’t really over-cure by time. If the epoxy curing time is a bit longer, there’s no problem. However, if the curing time is too short, there potentially can be problems with the bond and, therefore, with long-term product reliability. You always want to be conservative with epoxy due to the risk of shipping a product with epoxy that isn’t properly cured. If your customer deploys cable assemblies with improperly cured epoxy, the cost to your company to replace product – after it has been installed in the field – can be catastrophic.
READ THE BLOG: Bonding Optical Fiber to the Ceramic Ferrule Part 3: Best practices to validate your epoxy curing schedule
Additional resources from the FOC team include:
- Category Resource
- View the Glossary, Acronyms, Military Specifications for Connectors
- Q&A Resource: email technical questions to AskFOC@focenter.com
Have questions about this FOC Tip?
Contact FOC with questions at: (800) 473-4237 / 508-992-6464 or email: FiberOpticCenter@focenter.com and we will respond ASAP.
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